Master's in Education (M.Ed.): Is It Worth It for Private and Charter School Teachers?

The Master of Education (M.Ed.) is a graduate degree in the field of education; universities list the same degree family under titles like M.Ed. and M.S.Ed.

What separates it from the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) is its audience: WGU, a university that offers both, describes MAT programs as those that "typically lead to initial licensure," while it describes M.Ed. and M.S.Ed. programs as typically serving current educators and advanced roles.

In that framing, the M.Ed. is the degree built for people already working in schools, not for a first license.

What you specialize in is chosen through a concentration or track, and the menus differ by program — each program's catalog lists the tracks its own degree offers, so the catalog is the source for what a given M.Ed. can specialize in.

For a picture of the job the degree serves, the private school teacher career guide covers the work, the schools and the hiring process.

The workforce data shows how common the degree already is among the people you would be studying alongside.

In NCES's 2020–21 National Teacher and Principal Survey, private K–12 school teachers' highest degree was a master's for 41%, a bachelor's for 45%, higher than a master's for 9%, and less than a bachelor's for 5%.

Public school teachers hold the degree more often: 51% of public K–12 teachers (traditional public and charter combined) had a master's as their highest degree in the same survey.

By school type, the private-school master's share was 40.7% at Catholic schools, 34.1% at other religious schools and 49.8% at nonsectarian schools — NCES's closest category to independent schools, though not the same as NAIS membership.

The "higher than a master's" share followed the same order: 12.6% at nonsectarian schools, 9.7% at Catholic schools and 6.1% at other religious schools.

The degree has also been trending up for decades: NCES's Digest of Education Statistics table for private school teachers shows the master's share rising from 29.8% in 1987–88 to 40.7% in 2020–21.

NAIS, the association for independent schools, reports a more credentialed picture at its member schools: in 2022–23, 50% of NAIS member-school teachers held a master's, 39% held only a bachelor's and 10% held a doctorate.

Length and cost are set program by program, and they vary more than the shared degree title suggests.

Our research found no verified national figure for a typical M.Ed. length, credit count or price, and this guide will not invent one — the program's own catalog and tuition page are the sources for both numbers.

The variables that move the totals are the required credit count, your course load per term, the format — online, evening, summer or in person — and fees charged on top of tuition.

If you are teaching full time, map each program's pacing against your school year before you enroll; a schedule built for full-time students reads very differently from one built around a teaching day.

One check happens before enrollment rather than after: if a program is designed or advertised to meet licensure requirements anywhere, the college must publish a state-by-state disclosure, covered in the M.Ed. vs MAT section below.

The sourced answer is about factors, not dollar amounts.

NAIS reports that when independent schools set salaries, they typically consider the teacher's education, teaching load, certifications and time employed at the current school.

Education is on that list, so a master's can enter the pay conversation at the schools NAIS describes.

The limits matter, though: the list is NAIS's picture of its member schools — a subset of private schools — and it says nothing about the size of the education factor.

No dollar figure comes with it.

Our research did not confirm how the master's enters independent-school pay in dollars; NAIS's detailed salary data is member-only, so the public record we checked carries no figure.

We also found no published figure for the average raise a master's produces at private schools generally.

That leaves the individual school as the source to ask — how education enters its salary scale or stipend schedule — and it is worth getting the answer in writing before you count on it.

If you are weighing a move between sectors, read each employer's published salary documents directly — a school's or district's own scale is that employer's, never an industry average.

Charter school teachers hold master's degrees at rates similar to their private school peers.

In NCES's 2020–21 survey, charter school teachers' highest degree was a master's for 41.3%, a bachelor's for 47.6%, higher than a master's for 9.6%, and less than a bachelor's for 1.5%.

Traditional public school teachers in the same survey table held master's degrees at 51.9%, so charters sit near the private school figure (41%) and below the traditional public one.

What an individual charter school or network looks for is its own hiring bar; the posting and the network's career pages are where it shows up.

Certification is the separate question, and it is state law: federal special-education rules defer a public charter school's special education teachers to the certification requirements, if any, in its state's charter law (34 CFR 300.156).

A degree and a certificate stay separate questions at charters, as they do everywhere else: the first is the school's hiring bar, the second is the state's rule.

Three graduate paths fit a private or charter teaching career, and the goal picks the degree.

Degree	What it is built for	Check before enrolling
M.Ed. / M.S.Ed.	Typically serves current educators and advanced roles.	The concentration, plus the state licensure disclosure if licensure is part of your goal.
MAT	Typically leads to initial licensure.	Whether the program meets your state's requirements, from the college's disclosure.
Subject master's (MA or MS in your teaching field)	Depth in your subject — the emphasis NAIS says secondary schools more often look for.	How schools in your division weigh subject expertise.

The word doing the work in that first column is "typically": some M.Ed. programs do lead to a teaching license, so judge programs rather than initials.

Federal rules make that judgment practical: under 34 CFR 668.43(a)(5)(v), a college whose program is designed or advertised to meet licensure requirements must disclose the states where it has determined the program does and does not meet them.

The same rule requires notice to prospective students before enrollment when a program does not meet, or the college has not determined whether it meets, their state's requirements.

The subject master's case rests on hiring patterns: NAIS notes that lower-school hiring at independent schools emphasizes familiarity with child development, while secondary schools more often look for higher education and subject expertise — social studies and biology are its examples.

Private and charter schools hire at every degree level: the 2020–21 distribution earlier in this guide shows private school teachers holding degrees from less than a bachelor's to above a master's.

So treat the choice as a fit decision — where you teach now, what you want to teach next, and what the postings at your target schools ask for.

Whether a school funds graduate work is its own policy, and how often private schools subsidize a teacher's master's degree is not published: our research did not confirm how widely they do, and we did not verify charter networks' arrangements either.

When you ask, the arrangements to ask about include a professional development budget that covers coursework or conferences, a tuition benefit for employees, and a stipend line for advanced degrees in the salary scale.

Each is the school's own policy — the employee handbook, the contract and the business office are the sources — and the interview or intent-to-return season is the natural moment to ask.

Keep two benefits separate in your head: tuition remission policies at private schools concern tuition charges, and a policy covering employees' own graduate coursework is a different arrangement from one covering their children's tuition.

One caution before you budget: the tax treatment of a tuition benefit depends on the arrangement, so confirm the net amount with a tax professional rather than assuming the sticker number is yours to keep.

The honest limit first: our research found no verified figure that maps M.Ed. concentrations to leadership roles at private or charter schools, so treat any promised pipeline with care.

What the sourced data supports is narrower: NAIS reports that independent schools typically consider a teacher's education, teaching load, certifications and time at the school when setting salary — factors that compound as a career lengthens.

The practical route runs through postings: read leadership postings at the kind of school you are aiming at — dean of students, division head, assistant head, head of school — and note what each asks for, because requirements differ by school and by role.

Concentration choice then follows the role: match the coursework descriptions in a program's catalog to the duties named in the postings you want to win, rather than trusting a track's title.

For the paths themselves, the career guides for the instructional coach, the division head and the head of school cover how teachers move into each seat.

Then match the concentration to the job you want next, and let the postings at your target schools arbitrate the choice.

Career information, not legal, tax or financial advice: confirm degree, certification and benefits questions with the program, your school, your state education agency or a tax professional, as the question requires.